Amidst the dust of death in Iraq, a few bright flowers

A young Chaldean priest knowingly and willingly chose to remain with his parishioners in the Church of the Holy Spirit parish in Mosul, judged to be the most dangerous city after Baghdad in Iraq. His reasoning was simple: without him, without as its pastor, his flock would be scattered. In the barbarity of suicide attacks and bombings, one thing at least was clear -- one thing that gave him the strength to resist and persevere: "Christ”, Ragheed would say, “challenges evil with his infinite love, he keeps us united and through the Eucharist he gifts us life, which the terrorists are trying to take away." They killed him on the Sunday after Pentecost after he had celebrated Mass in Mosul, together with three of his subdeacons. See Sandro Magister, "The Last Mass of Father Ragheed, a Martyr of the Chaldean Church." (www.chiesa, June 5, 2007).